Raised Bed Gardening - How to Grow Well in Small Spaces

What is raised bed gardening and why should you be interested? It is -- usually -- done in some kind of raised bed gardening in containers. There are square raised beds, rectangular raised beds, and round raised beds. You can make a raised bed just about any shape you want and, yes, container planters are a form of raised bed.

Raised Bed Gardening and the New Homeowner

I asked the lumber yard to cut these pieces 4 feet long for two 4x4 square raised beds.

After that, I went over to the garden center and picked up eight bags of garden soil.
I learned about raised bed gardening from watching garden shows on TV including Mel Bartholomew's TV show on PBS, "Square Foot Gardening".

Hey, how hard can it be to nail four boards together to form a four foot by four foot raised bed garden box?

The pressure of the garden soil also helped keep the shape of the raised bed garden box together.

It's astonishing how much could grow in a small raised bed garden. One of the greatest advantages to raised bed gardening is that you control the soil content.

Build some raised beds and filled them with a mix of garden soil, compost and something to lighten it up -- vermiculite, perlite, peat moss, or even some sand. One of the things you want to avoid in raised bed or container gardening is heavy soil density. If you have a bad back or you have avoided gardening because you don't want to look like one of those pieces of bent over garden art -- you know the ones, women with fat butts in bloomers -- build your garden beds higher.

You can stack your raised beds on top of each other. You can grow just about anything in a raised bed. From potatoes to tomatoes to a cutting garden full of zinnias, you can do it in a raised bed.

Garden Versatility with Raised Bed Gardening

Cultivating soil in a traditional row garden takes time. Using raised beds allows you to garden instantly.

Try Something Different With A Japanese Garden

Try Something Different With A Japanese Garden

Japanese Gardens are an interesting amalgamation of nature, spirituality and art. These gardens are meant to suggest harmony and create tranquility in your surroundings. Originally, Japanese Gardens represented a utopian land for the Japanese. Philosophies influencing creation of Japanese Gardens bring a sense of spirituality to the gardens. The presence of a few elements is mandatory for a Japanese garden, and water is the most important amongst them. Water, in Japanese culture, symbolizes purity. This has led to the presence of water in most Japanese gardens. The other essential elements in a Japanese garden are stones, garden plants, waterfalls, trees, and bridges. Some gardens owners also construct water features like waterfalls, streams, or ponds. There are five different styles of Japanese gardens, namely, Strolling Gardens, Natural Gardens, Sand and Stone Gardens, Tea Gardens and Flat Gardens.

Since the Japanese are highly individualistic, the look of the Japanese garden mostly depends on the person who plants and tends the garden. Japanese gardens are different from Western gardens in terms of their religious and philosophical elements. Japanese gardens are an expression of art, and a symbolic representation of the gardeners view of the universe. Traditional Japanese gardens emphasize natural, abstract beauty and minimize signage on plants.

Inspiring and Intricate Herb Garden Designs

Inspiring and Intricate Herb Garden Designs

The history of garden design dates back to 1500 BC. The famous Hanging gardens of Babylon were known as one of the wonders of the world. Temple gardens contained vegetables and herbs that were considered sacred. In the middle age, sophisticated herb garden designs and horticulture techniques were developed by monasteries. Much of the present modern herb garden design is influenced and inspired by the intricate, traditional Persian, Zen and Italian Renaissance gardens.